Though it might seem like ages ago, as recently as November 2024, Republican candidates actually made gains with Arab and Muslim voters. A year and a half later, there’s a reason the organization that used to be Arab Americans for Trump decided to change its name.

On Monday, for example, Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee published a message to social media that argued, “Muslims don’t belong in American society.” A day earlier, Republican Rep. Randy Fine of Florida, whose track record of peddling Islamophobic rhetoric was already well established, wrote that Americans should “be afraid of Islam” and that Muslims should be expelled from the country.

This followed related recent bigotry from Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, who also recently called for the United States to deport Muslim Americans because of their religion. In Texas, meanwhile, where concerns about border security have waned, GOP officials and candidates have begun shifting their focus, attacking Latino immigrants less while attacking the state’s growing Muslim population more.

Democratic leaders have been quick to condemn the ugly and hateful partisan trend, but GOP leaders have failed entirely to do the same. In the aftermath of Ogles’ online statement, HuffPost reported:

Ogles’ office did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), nor any of his top lieutenants: Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) and Republican Policy Committee Chair Kevin Hern (R-Okla.).

GOP officials appear to be sending an unmistakable signal: In the contemporary Republican Party, anti-Muslim attitudes are, at a minimum, tolerated, if not encouraged. It would be easy for any party leader to issue a perfunctory statement saying Republicans are against religious bigotry, and the fact that this hasn’t happened speaks volumes.

The Bulwark’s Joe Perticone recently wrote, “Almost a decade removed from President Donald Trump’s attempt to ban Muslims from entering the country during his first term — a vile passion project that has been given new life in his second presidency — a growing number of House and Senate Republicans are taking Islamophobia to a new level, actively calling for discrimination against Muslims and even arguing that some should be denaturalized and deported from the United States.”

Perticone’s piece was published 11 weeks ago. Republican officials and candidates aren’t just proving his thesis; they’re also working to make the problem worse.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.